Beauty. Food. Photography. Travel.

Building the Small Bed Platform

I like horse races, blackjack and hair salons. I write that on a match.com profile. Once. That isn’t my style of dating, but I try it. I hate it. I can’t remember the last time I set foot in an OTB (Off Track Betting), speaking of horse races. I don’t even know if they are still around. Wait, I take this back, not that I don’t know if they are around but about the last time I was in an OTB. A straight ten dollar bet on Lemon Drop Kid. I collect my winnings in Astoria, Queens. 190$. Don’t remember the year though. Pretty good odds. I still don’t know if OTB is around. I could GOOGLE all that, I know. I for sure can’t say the last time I sat at blackjack table either. Always bet small. Nothing big. For the fun of it. Probably Vegas, Hard Rock Hotel. I used to fold t-shirts at sister location, a Hard Rock Cafe restaurant/retailer in college. The casino in Vegas plays great music. I liked the Rock ‘n Roll. As for hair salons, I spend the better part of my week, five days to be exact, in a hair salon. I am a “career changer”. Whatever that really means for me. The queen of freelance jobs. In between my twenty years of bartending that is. As I am reading something along the lines of in Will Write for Food, you had better have a rich wealthy generous with you husband (or partner), a trust fund, come from an affluent family, or at least have a very large savings account if you want to be a blogger. Yes, this is true. The optimist in me disagrees. It is true. I would now like to add hairdresser to that. If you don’t have the above, which I don’t, a great, understanding, nice landlord helps. I have that for sure. I have a savings, some gold coins, platinum coins and other precious metals. My one friend that knows, calls me a pirate. Just because some of the coins being gold. I don’t acquire them in any sort of pirate way. I should say had. All of which I have now used. To pay rents, debts, and to live. I have sold shoes and clothes. I even sold my Volvo recently after much consideration. A creeping debt to income ratio won. I have sold as much as I can or care to sell at the moment, everything, except myself. Some argue that dating and selling oneself is a fine line though. I’ll leave that conversation alone of now. There are popular websites for this as I understand, should I need to go there. After having quit my full-time bartender job and losing several freelance jobs, this happens. I suppose that’s why a savings is there!? I am happy and grateful to have had it. Bartender jobs have a ceiling. I wanted a different lifestyle for a long time. Dating was part of this. Dating was terrible for me because of the schedule too. Mostly the stereotype of bartender though. Truly, I had heard men on many occasion say we don’t date bartenders. I wouldn’t date a bartender. This and that. I get it. Even though, yes, if a guy wants to see you he will make it happen regardless of schedule and profession. I got all that. Believe me. And yes, Matt Damon is the exception. He is also Matt Damon. Someone mentions this to me recently.

It’s just a different lifestyle, bartender job. Food and beverage jobs in general really. One night, I am standing at the bar talking to this gentleman. I eventually ask how he comes to Los Angeles. He says he was practicing law in a small town and knew he could always be a lawyer in a small town. He wanted to do something else. He moves to Los Angeles to make movies. He had since won an Academy Award for producing. I later find out everyone in the place knew who he was except me. Go figure. Seems his transition from one life to another may have been a little easier. Let it be clear though, I take responsibility for my choices and how I got to where I am.

Back to hair I go. I decide that I want to style and learn other chemical techniques and hair color products. Extensions and wigs would be a bonus! I apply. I am hired. As an assistant though, regardless of my experience. I only have five regular clients and a bunch of first timers/one timers. Model types. Celebrity clients are not part of my five. Bottom line, I have to assist. There is more to learn and I have been living a dual life for a while. Focusing on one thing will be good. Hairdresser assistant jobs don’t pay much. There are exceptions. I haven’t found it. Lets just say, mine haven’t. I had forgotten that from the first time around. I assist a well-known specialized hair colorist right out of school. I love the hair color. I was able to bartend through that experience. Eighty hours a week sucked but at least I had health insurance and other job perks and could pay for my life. I left that assisting job after my trip to Dubai for that company. The choices we make. $12.50 an hour and 100$ a week from the hairdresser I assist plus tips from shampooing is what I get now. While I love it, if it doesn’t pay the bills, this is a problem. No matter how much I love it. I am pretty sure the pay rate is poverty. At least in Los Angeles. Being the problem solver that I am and not quite wanting to whore myself out, I have two pallets left over from the first bed building I Built a Bed for Breakfast in Bed.

My indoor patio which was either going to be a funky sun room with fake cacti, lattice holding fake ivy with mixed floral patterned fabric, pottery and furniture or my kid’s room. No I don’t have a kid (or a baby daddy). I could always adopt. I can’t keep a plant alive, never mind a kid, so I think I’ll build another bed platform, sleep in the small room, hang clothes on a rolling rack as my hanging clothes have be reduced to only one garment rolling rack (see Decluttering post). Besides, wardrobe stylists that don’t have studios work out of their home. New roomie would have to deal with the dining room as a wardrobe something. After a series of interviewing people. A bunch of no-shows, I forgots, I found a place, I am leaving Los Angeles blah, blah, blah. This is silly. Los Angeles, I love you but the NYC has got you beat on how easy it is renting rooms. At least from where I am sitting. I mean I place ads at UCLA, various priced ads on Craig’s List to see what came back and several posts on a Facebook women’s group page. Where are my sorority sisters when I need them. Somethings but nothings. I ask friends to ask friends. I get some scams too. People wanting to use me to help them understand renting in Los Angeles as well. Three months go by. I get a few bartender gigs. I make tips. Work gets better. Just when I am making headway and finally have a roomie, she gets pregnant. Seriously. How is that for odds. I am glad she did and so is she. What are the chances. Ok. I try AirBnB but after a discussion about decor and aesthetics and this and that and me looking at my phone at work, this won’t work either. An app I use for work is on my phone in my defense, but I can’t help but think if a lodger/traveler wants to ask questions how that will go in the middle of a color correction. Then I get a fever flu. Down for one week. I hadn’t been sleeping really. Somewhere along the way I wanted to “social experiment”, a color correction of my own and a change really, I changed my hair to red, which was so fun, for a while. Now. My apartment is now a mess. I feel like a mess. I give up on the room renting. I move myself back into my room and put my home back in order. Change my hair back to blonde. I recover from the flu and now I sleep. The new small bed is now in my photo studio with the rolling rack. I’ll figure something else out. There has to be the perfect side hustle for me. Los Angeles is known for them. In the meantime, I got another blog post and had the opportunity to build something. Learn a thing or two about a thing or two. The second time is easier building the bed platform and I had fun, despite. Now when a guest comes over, they a place to sleep.

A video of me jigsawing once I realize the platforms are too long. I hadn’t taken into account the protruding perimeter tiles..

couple pallets left over from the first bed..time to wash..one at a time in the bath tub..

for sure the cleaning is easier in the tub with

propped up to drydry and ready for the sanding..after sanding comes the sealing..this on is easier than the first.. product left over and there are only two pallets for this bed platform..using the roller on its own is easier than with the handle.. my hands are small enough and i can get the roller on both sides to seal with the roller in hand..

one pallet is broken which works out as they are too long to fit.. I need a saw..off to the Lowes Hardware..this section is dizzyingi would have great muscles after this? Need something stronger than me and with an electrical cord..blades for the jigsaw I have in my handI leave with this one..and soon return.. my neighbor has one that I borrow and it is Ryobi too (the same as my drill)..

selfie in the middle of this???checking the balanceannoyed that they don’t fit..

need to saw the other end.. aesthetics..Jay from the salon let me borrow his circular saw for the final sawing..

I didn’t like the look of one side being cut and not the other and I had already returned the jigsaw so I borrowed a circular saw..

I am working things out. While, my apartment isn’t an amenity building. I love it though. I call it my “she cave”. I have fun here. It has the feeling for me of living in my great Aunt’s place. The building was built in 1937. Old school cool.